~ politics for the people

Why is the UK preparing to pay big money for ‘free’ trade?

During the EU referendum Vote Leave pledged to repatriate £350m it said was being sent each week to the EU [Image: BBC].

CONTRADICTION ALERT: Why is the UK preparing to pay a fortune for permission to stay in the European single market, where trading is supposed to be free?

It won’t be free if everybody in the country is paying for it?

Also, it won’t be fair. We’ll all be paying, but we won’t all be trading there, will we?

Of course, this latest revelation flags up another Leave lie – that we would be able to use the £350 million a week they (wrongly) claimed was spent on our EU membership (in fact, taking everything into account, EU membership put us billions of pounds in profit) to boost the NHS.

The money simply won’t be there.

What’s that? You think nobody said the money could be spent on the NHS?

[Image: Getty.]

Think again.

Whitehall officials believe the UK may need to make big payments to the EU to secure preferential trading terms after Brexit, BBC Newsnight has learned.

During the EU referendum, Vote Leave claimed leaving the EU could save the UK £350m a week in contributions.

But an unnamed cabinet minister has told Newsnight that the UK may end up “paying quite a lot” of that money to secure access to the single market.

The government said it would not give a “running commentary” on negotiations.

We’ll be paying through the nose because a few hard line reactionaries are unable to work alongside other nations unless they’re lording it over them. What a stupid and utter mess the Nasty Party has got the nation into.

It was common knowledge before the referendum that access to the single market would involve paying virtually the same amount as for membership of the EU, but without any influence or other benefits. Other countries in that position made that clear.

Does this mean that Brexit doesn’t quite mean the hard Brexit May was gushing about last week?

I think I’m away to throw myself off the nearest cliff.

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